Sunday, December 28, 2008

Hello Bloggy Friends! I hope each one of you had a special Christmas. Ours was wonderful, in spite of the fact that my Dear Husband BROKE HIS ANKLE the day before Christmas Eve. Oh yes, not only did he break it, he tore all the tendons in it, and dislocated it. The poor man was walking to his work van in the snow, slipped, and SNAP. It's just crazy. This guy doesn't injure easily! He snowboards, he pushes cars out of the snow, he leaps over buildings with a single bound, and yet just walking, this happened. He is pretty sore right now, and doesn't get surgery until Wednesday, which will be a week since his accident.

Now, I promised you a fun tutorial. This stemmed from Wendy over at The Shabby Nest. Her tutorial for her cute little pixies is HERE. I saw her little pixies and it made me want to take some special family photos and give them angel wings!!

First, print out the photos you want to bring to life. I made most of mine black and white. Find some cardstock and newspaper. MY newspaper was from ITALY. Not to country drop or anything. {Wink}

Get out your Mod Podge!!

And a paintbrush...I sadly do not have a paint brush, so I used a folded piece of paper-

Paint the cardstock with ModgePodge

Spread the newspaper over the now glue sodden cardstock. (I am sure spray adhesive would be much easier...) NOTE: Be sure to make the biggest mess possible.

Antique your newspaper. I took a wadded paper towel, rubbed it in yellow-ish stamp ink, and blotted it all over my paper.

While you are making the-biggest-mess-possible, make sure Baby is confined and well supplied with Cheerios so she does not attempt to ModgePodge with you.

See the antiqued ITALLIAN newspaper? (tee-hee-hee)Cut out around the pictures you selected with an exacto knife or scissors

Cut out little angel wings to fit each picture. I rubbed the edges in the stamping ink to make them a little darker and defined.

Take glue, and trace the edges of each wing. (And proceede to delete the photo of that by accident from this post...grrr...) Then, douse the wings with glitter, as seen below. The instructions to make-the-biggest-mess-possible, continue to apply...

Observe your glitter covered fingers and paper

Shake all the glitter off the wings and let them dry

Glue to the back of your cut out photos

And there you have it!! Sparkly angel wings for anyone you choose =)

Go check out the pixie tutorial mentioned above!

I hope you all have a safe and happy new years! I might be slightly less active in my blogging for the next week with the holiday, my husbands broken leg, and his surgery. I'll post a little about that for those of you who want to keep tabs on us!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

May your hearts be filled with His Light as you Celebrate the Light of the World. May your family have cherished times together and make priceless memories.

I pray you all have a very BlEsSeD Christmas filled with WoNdEr at what the Ultimate Gift of Baby Jesus means to us, because of His Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection.

I will be away for the next couple of days to take time to Celebrate with my family. I am so excited to celebrate LaLa's {FIRST} Christmas!! And Dear Son's Christmas as a 3 year old- it will be so fun to see him really 'get' it this year. My heart is filled with excitement and overflowing with blessings.

I shall return shortly after Christmas with an exciting tutorial that involves glitter!! Stay tuned...

Print out some favorite photos that commemorate the past year. I am thinking I will now have to make this a Christmas tradition!! I made my photos something like 3.5x3.8. Not perfectly square or anything, just a general small-ish size. I also made them black and white, except for the Snow ones. I then picked out some Christmas-y scrapbook paper for the backgrounds.

Now proceede to cut the background paper to border the selected photos. Again, I just eyeballed this, so they fit the way I wanted them to.

Glue Photos onto Cut Squares of Paper.

I did all of mine at a jaunty angle. This was done for 2 reasons. {Number One} it looks cute, and {Number Two} you can't tell about size imperfections/lack-of-squareness. (A little secret, I just made up Number Two now because it seemed like an additional good reason.)

Next add embellishments. I had some Christmasscrapbooking stickers that I added, along with some Valentines ones (Our daughter was born around V-day so they were fitting on the newborn photos).Finally, I use a hole punch to put holes in the top of each one. I debated on how to hang them, and since I have the aforementioned 50 Billion projects going on at once, I just stuck wire Christmas ornament hooks in them. I am sure I will have to reenforce the holes in the future, but right now I just didn't have the time! Ribbon, twine, or raffia would also be cute to hang these!

And there you have it! Hang them on your tree, your Nester Garland on your mantel, or from some ribbon strung up in your house...The possibilities are endless!! You could also top your Christmas presents with them. If you make some, post them and let me know!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

It looks like Spiders really know how to do Christmas right!! My Dear Son pointed out this spider web to me out the window and I had to go get a closer look. It is absolutely AMAZING. Look at the details of the ice crystals clinging to the silky web. How intricate and elaborate? I am in awe of the beauty that the Ultimate Creator creates. Merry Christmas from Charolette! (Maybe this is her contribution to the Nester's garland party??!!?) Oh, and I saw no sign of the spider there, don't feel sorry for the little guy, I think it's probably sun bathing in Maui right now. ;-)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I woke up this morning with anticipation in my heart. I had a present to open, and it was waiting for me on my computer- MY NEW BLOG DESIGN!!!

{{Jumping up and down like an Extreme Makeover contestant}}

I opened the laptop......I double clicked on the Internet tab.............I typed in my blog address..........

***SWOON***

I am in love. I love it like I love my Grande Half-Decaf 6 Pump Vanilla No Foam Latte. I love it like I love my pink converse shoes. I love it like I love the Foot of Snow I woke up to this morning. I love it like I love fabulous fabric.

THANK YOU SHAUNA!!

{Commercial announcer voice} This blog makeover was brought to you by Shauna from See My Designs. Shauna has a variety of blog makeover options to choose from. She is oh-so-talented, and a d.e.l.i.g.h.t. to work with. Go see her for some bloggin beauty, and be sure to keep her name in mind for any future happiness you might want to add to your blog.

Now, I mentioned the foot of snow I woke up to-

And I think my 10 Month Old's face really expresses how I feel about this phenomenon-

What a thrill! We don't get events like this very often in the Pacific Northwest. I think I spent 75% of my life as a child praying that it would snow. (And at times we did get some very good snow, I must have had the "snow prayer" figured out. *wink*)

Oh the joy eekeing from my being!

I am off to enjoy the snow. Today will be the day of PRICELESS photos, think of how high the snow will look with my 3 year old and 10 month old in it!

It really IS a Winter Wonderland!

Megan

****I also wanted to mentioned that my Etsy Shop is now FULLY stocked. Go visit for some baby goodness!! And the GIVEAWAY listed below is still open, go enter to win!!*******

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Grab a Starbucks Christmas mug and pour yourself some coffee-Take a peek into my dining room and see my Christmas chandelier! Can you see the forest for the trees? I realized I had quite a collection this year, and all are from after Christmas sales, whence I paid almost nothing for them! And the two red and gold stripy stands? Dressy pots upside down...

Yes, Christmas fills me with Joy, I love it so!

Check back again, I plan to add some more photos after I take them. ;)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Of Course! Why didn't I think of that??? Snow ='s Power wheels. Our future driving Champ takes the Lamborghini for a spin. Do you see that look of determination?Sometimes we need a little push going uphill, those tires are getting packed with snow!Yes, a nice drive in the snow was exactly what the day called for.And a big warm cup of Coffee....That was fun! Can we do it again???